


Microcosm

by Starbroken



Category: Death Note & Related Fandoms, Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: AU: same age, AU: same school, M/M, Pre-Relationship, not!crush is totally not a crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-16 17:56:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11833989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starbroken/pseuds/Starbroken
Summary: Teru doesn't have an umbrella, Light does. High School AU ficlet that is so pre-shippy, you need to squint at it a little.





	Microcosm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [casuistor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/casuistor/gifts).



> Dedicated to casuistor, who is the best.

Cold wetness assails Teru's feet after only a single step outside the building, even though he hasn't left the protection of the school roof behind yet. The first puddle has daringly positioned itself right in front of the steps. Disgusted, Teru draws back his foot. This does not make his toe any less moist. He's needed new shoes for a few weeks now, but his aunt has yet to notice. The hole is hardly visible when you look at the sneakers from the top – and why would his aunt look at them from anywhere else, if she looked at all?

Teru hasn't deemed it worthwhile to tell her either. Before the rainy season, there was very little reason to. He hates being an extra expense. Hidemi is obliged to pay for her nephew. That's not an issue in and of itself. Caring for one another's basic needs is how society is structured. Teru knows he deserves to have his basic needs met. It's just that Hidemi makes a face that he hates seeing, so he puts it off.

The seconds tick by. Teru stands on the border between the emptying school and the wet outside world, a flow of students parting around him and becoming one with the rain. Many of them are cursing the sudden downpour that caught them all off guard, but they are eager to get home and nobody hesitates to plunge themselves right into the weather. Those lucky enough to have been granted the foresight or paranoia necessary to take an umbrella on a sunny morning look on with a sense of smugness. A few take friends with them, sheltering them clumsily.

It doesn't usually take Teru long to leave school. He has a schedule and it incorporates his every step. It's just that he doesn't want to get wet, he doesn't want to have to change out of his soaked clothes at home. Why can't the weather stick to the plan? People, shoes, natural phenomenons... nobody is reliable. If being offended counted for something, Teru would have changed the world long ago.

Swoosh.

Teru flinches – no, jumps – at the sudden sound behind him. His angered trance had made him far too oblivious to the world behind him and he'd scold himself if he had the time for it. Laughter draws him from any such thoughts.

“You know, just this morning I got annoyed with my mother when she forced this on me. I ought to apologize.”

Vague shapes take form as Light Yagami, smiling in a charming yet utterly noncommittal way. He's holding an umbrella in a muted grey, tasteful, nowhere near flashy.

The picture of perfection, so horrifyingly shiny that one could get dizzy from it. Teru remembers watching Light from a distance, sickened by his very existence. Jealous, maybe, of the one who took his top spot on the educational ladder. That's been a year ago now; it's been months since he held any such disdain. To call Light his friend would be too much said (and Teru is sure Light would disagree with such an assessment by laughing it up with this disarming way he had) but they talk. It's more than Teru can say about most people. The school's number one and number two, a sufficient connection.

Finally recovering from his surprise, Teru gives a nod in greeting. “This wasn't on the weather forecast.” The scowl on his face is intended for every meteorologist out there, Light only receives it in substitute. The boy raises an eyebrow.

“There's still some way science has to go, yes.” The following pause is an expectant one, but Teru doesn't know what to fill it with. Awkwardly his gaze shifts from Light, back to the rain. As if avoiding eye contact could mask the difference between their social realities.

It only takes a second of silence until grey begins to cover his view from above. Light has stepped closer, arm brushing Teru's.

“Let's go, then,” he announces. Whatever question Teru was supposed to ask beforehand has now been skipped entirely. “Stick close to me or you'll get wet, the umbrella isn't that big.”

'My shoe has a hole in it, it doesn't matter,' Teru wants to say, but the words die somewhere between his pharynx and teeth. Why? Why's that? The reasons tumble over one another (Light shouldn't know he walks in broken clothes, it would be rude, he does not want to be looked down on) but none of them fit the bill quite perfectly.

Instead he nods, mhm-ing in acknowledgement. They step out from under the roof and paradoxically, his sock doesn't feel as wet as before.

They blend in perfectly. Walking with Light usually attracts many stares, just like walking with Teru attracts many whispers, but now everyone is occupied with their own problems. They're invisible, two people in an umbrella microcosm.

“... thank you,” Teru murmurs towards the ground, navigating his feet between puddles and the need to match Light's pace.

“It's no big deal. You looked pretty lost there, though.” Light's tone is chipper as always, a smooth perfection that Teru finds irritatingly hard to judge.

“Anyone wouldn't want their clothes to get soaked. I was steeling myself for it.” Light's elbow is uncomfortably close, but to keep it from brushing against his side, Teru would have to leave the umbrella sphere.

“Funny, I think of you more as stone than steel. But that doesn't work idiomatically, huh?”

“That doesn't sound like a compliment.”

“Oh? Somehow I thought it might fit your ideal. I've never met anyone with as much focus on being consistent as you.”

…

Teru has to concede that point. A splash of water hits his shoulder from the corner of the umbrella and he instinctively steps further inside, stumbling, knocking against Light ungracefully. Instinctively he mutters an apology and finds himself saying it into Light's sleeve, face pressed a little too close to Light's shoulder.

For a moment there's only the sound of rain. Light has stopped walking and when Teru removes himself, he finds himself face to face with the other boy.

Light isn't smiling. He has that expression that is reserved to those moments when he's not looking at anyone, when his gaze goes out of the hallway window on the third floor, passing over the vast anonymous city. Oddly, Teru feels at ease with that.

There's no expectation in that glance, maybe not even any direct perception. Scanned by those distant eyes, Teru doesn't feel any judgement.

It's a bit of a disappointment when Light clears his throat and blinks.

“I don't bite, Mikami-kun. Maybe if you walked closer from the get-go, we'd get to the station faster than by falling all over one another.”

Teru huffs. “I do believe it's customary to not invade someone else's private space without permission. I was being polite.”

“I won't count it as an offense if you're polite a little closer to me. In a controlled fashion, of course. If we both landed in a puddle, that might defeat the purpose.”

The charm is back up at 100% now. Teru can't tell if Light is mocking or teasing him, but for the sake of staying dry (foot excluded), he benevolently assumes the latter and re-positions himself at Light's side. Arm to arm, not arm in arm, but the parallel to the couples that left the premises a few minutes ago are disturbing. The sooner they can part ways and enter their trains, the sooner Teru can forget about how warm his side feels (and it shouldn't, through their jackets)... yes, the sooner, the better.

Squish, squish, goes the water between his toes. It seeps into every fiber of his socks and soles. It's only to distract himself that Teru begins talking. About the world, about the news, about exams.

When they reach their destination he has forgotten all about the water. There's only Light and that disdainful wrinkle in his nose when he points out the fallacies of government regulations; Light and the way his grin falters as he recites offensive paragraph numbers.

“There we are.” Light's usual tone returns in the blink of an eye. The conversation vanishes along with the closing of the umbrella, as if it could only exist in that specific habitat. “Make sure to be prepared for summer rains the rest of the week, Mikami-kun. Bye!”

Teru will be prepared. He'll buy new shoes and leave school early, umbrella in hand. There are some experiences that are too dangerous to repeat.


End file.
